Bet on the NBA The Denver Nuggest will host the Miami Heat this Thursday night.The Nuggets are definitely crossing their fingers that the Heat’s LeBron James and his sprained ankle do not make an appearance this week, but when dong your NBA betting remember, it’s not likely to happen.

LeBron sprained his ankle in the fourth against the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.Recent X-Rays revealed that the sprain is negative, no serious damage done.He was driving to the basket past Clippers forward Al-Farouq Aminu, when Clippers guard Baron Davis dove down to try and defend, then James’ ankle rolled over as he planted on Davis’ right foot.This resulted in LeBron losing the ball and hopping on one foot off the court and nto the stands.But then we quickly saw him back on the floor, snagging the ball and knocking out a corner three over Aminu off of one single foot.He limped occasionally throughout the remainder of the game, but rumor has it he is feeling a lot better now.

Online Sports Book ranks the Heat as the minus 4 point favorites this week, with the total over under at 205.

Now let’s look at the star athlete for the Denver Nuggest, Carmelo Anthony.He has been in the media quiet a bit lately, the focus has been on an alleged mega-trade that, for salary-cap purposes, would involve as many as four teams and 15 players, and put Anthony in Nets threads. That could mean Anthony staying with the Nuggets through season's end, declaring himself a free agent, then signing with a Knicks team that has the cap space to get him without giving anything away. That's the worst-case scenario for the Heat, not because the Knicks would vault ahead of Miami. They wouldn't, especially not with their aversion to defense, an issue that Anthony's arrival would hardly address. But they would be a serious long-term threat, with Anthony and Amare Stoudemire in their prime, a decent core of young, complementary players, and (depending on the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement) the ability to add a third star in the summer of 2012.And speaking of Stoudemire, he was recently caught up in a text message mess concerning Anthony, and was unable to admit if he was trying to persuade the young Carmelo to join him on the Knicks.